Assuaging
by Book.Wretched
Summary: A next generation one shot that takes place just before Lily goes to Hogwarts. Harry and Ginny move into a new house, fluff and hilarity ensue.


*** I wrote this before the Cursed Child came out, which I kind of disregard in any case***

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Harry shifted the heavy box in his arms, freeing one hand to brush his unruly black hair out of his eyes. Moving was hard work. Staggering under the weight of his burden, he started walking back towards the new house.

"Got something to prove?" Ginny asked, suddenly appearing behind him. "Or did you just forget that you're a wizard?"

Years of marriage meant that Harry was well familiar with her tone; that half sarcastic, half exasperated voice she used in the moments when she found him particularly adorable.

"Or," she continued, "did the vanquisher of the Dark Lord simply misplace his wand again?"

Harry grimaced and set the box down on the pavement with a thump. He straightened, rubbing his back and internally cursing, to see his wife standing before him with her arms crossed and a wry grin on her face. One of her fiery eyebrows was raised in amusement.

"Er…no," he replied sheepishly, wiping the sweat off the back of his neck. "Actually I think James and Albus ran off with it again."

Ginny laughed. "I told you not to keep in in your back pocket," she said, drawing her own wand from the recesses of her robe. "You know James has been trying to hone his pickpocketing skills recently."

"Nobody's forcing him to live up to his namesakes," Harry grumbled. "Though, I suppose naming him after both of them was asking for trouble."

"Yeah, no kidding," she agreed, peering into the back of the van before turning back to him with a grin. "Plus, with a dad like his…"

"Oi!" he exclaimed in mock outrage. "His mum's no saint either!"

"Oh, that's a good idea," she laughed, "Antagonize the one with the wand. It's a wonder you weren't put in Ravenclaw."

Harry walked over to where she was standing and playfully nudged her with his shoulder. "And if I had been in Ravenclaw I would have destroyed the first horcrux with a diadem, huh?"

She rolled her eyes. "Fine," she said kissing him briefly. "You win."

He wrapped his arms around her in response, breaking their kiss with a grin. "That's a first."

Ginny smiled, then sighed. "Well, we'd better get moving," she said, turning back to the magically enlarged moving van that Mr Weasley had been all too happy to lend them.

"Blimey," cried Harry, fully taking in the contents of the van for the first time. "When did we get so much stuff?"

She didn't dignify that with a response, but instead set to work levitating piles of boxes and trailing them before her. Shrugging, Harry picked the first box back up and followed her with as much enthusiasm as he could.

They'd sent the children to Ron and Hermione's for the morning and it was a great relief to have them out from underfoot. As a result, they'd almost finished unloading the van within an hour.

"The last box is full of your auror stuff, Harry," Ginny called from inside the van before emerging with the box in question. "Can you take this inside while I go pick up the kids?"

"Sure," he replied, letting her drop the levitating box into his arms. "I'll start unpacking when I'm done, so you can stay for tea."

With a smile and a parting kiss, she disapparated with a pop.

Harry lugged the box into the house and set it on the desk of his new study with a grunt. It was a handsome room, if a bit dusty, with a polished wooden floor and large windows that let in the midday sun. The bookshelves were empty and the wallpaper had one or two faded spots where pictures had once been.

He revelled for just a moment in the silence and tranquillity, the peace and quiet of the swirling dust motes and the note of possibility that resounded throughout the empty room. Then he closed the door behind him and went to start unpacking in the kitchen.

It was tiring work without his wand, but there was definitely something refreshing about it too. He thought it was a nice reminder of his old life as he packed the cupboards and scrubbed the counters clean. And he had to laugh at himself when it took him a few minutes to remember how to open the jar of peanut butter without a wand.

He finished his work while munching on a sandwich and then stood back, admiring his handiwork in the form of the gleaming kitchen. He didn't know what to do next.

He would start on their bedroom if he didn't know that Ginny would just rearrange everything later, and he knew that the children would have far more fun unpacking their boxes than he would. Plus, it was a useful activity to keep them busy.

Harry unloaded the boxes in the bathroom, but there wasn't really much to do in there and so it only took him a few minutes. Once more at a loss, he finally decided to begin in his own study.

Walking back downstairs, he grabbed a broom from the kitchen and then proceeded down the hall. He set to work sweeping the floor and wiping down the surfaces, becoming absorbed in his task. When he'd finished dusting, he grabbed the craft knife from his pocket and slit the box open.

He began to remove its contents, getting so swept away by nostalgia that he lost track of time. He hung his Order of Merlin next to his certificate of graduation from the Auror Academy, and then unpacked various photographs to place on his desk. His parents and the marauders beamed up at him from their frames, and he set the old snitch down with them. The gold gleamed dimly in the light and Harry could still faintly make out the letters that had once been such a mystery; _I open at the close_. He smiled as he removed a photograph of his own family from the box. It had been taken a few years ago, but the children were already noticeably older. Looking at his fidgeting offspring made him wistfully long for Hermione's old time turner; it really was too bad that they'd never made any more.

As he placed the frame on his desk, still smiling fondly, he heard an almighty _whoosh!_ And, as if that wasn't enough to announce Ginny's arrival with the children, the sound of voices raised in the middle of an argument.

"-it's just reckless, James!" Ginny was scolding. "You have your own wand, which you're not supposed to be using outside school either, I might add!"

Harry's smile disappeared, and his affectionate feelings along with it. He sighed and went through to the lounge where the family seemed to have congregated around the fireplace. As he hadn't thought to sweep it, there was a large amount of ash scattered in its proximity. At least he hadn't cleaned the living room.

"And what if there was a threat?" she yelled. "Dangerous people are always after him. How would he defend himself without his wand?"

Albus and Lily stood off to one side watching the scene unfold with their mouths open wide. For the amount of trouble their brother landed himself in, you'd think they'd be used to it by this point.

"What's all this then?" asked Harry, walking through the doorway to stand beside Ginny. He took her hand and squeezed it reassuringly, despite the fact that it was balled tightly into a fist. Then he turned to face James who was standing in the corner with a face like a storm cloud. One look at his head immediately explained why.

"James, why's your head covered in feathers?" he asked, fighting to keep a straight face.

James stared at the ground and muttered darkly. "Your wand."

"Er, I see," said Harry, a grin threatening to spread across his face.

"It's not funny, Harry!"

"I'll say!" James exclaimed, his temper flaring. "Change me back!"

"Not until you've learned your lesson!"

"You're not allowed to curse your children!" James shouted, "I'll call the ministry on you!"

The murderous expression on his wife's face prompted Harry to jump in.

"It seems like you've saved us the trouble, mate," he told James. "And besides, I think that Uncle Percy would take your mum's side on this."

"Just change me back, Dad! You can't let her leave me like this!"

Harry deliberated. While he felt sorry for the boy, James was in the wrong and he had brought this on himself. It's good for him to learn the repercussions of his actions, especially when they're a pale lavender. And though Ginny legally could not curse her children, there was no law protecting him from his wife's wrath.

"I'll leave that up to your mum," he said diplomatically, avoiding Ginny's eye. "Can I have my wand back now?"

He crossed the room to retrieve his wand, and after a moment of thought, he took James' wand too. Then Ginny sent them all off to unpack.

"You okay, love?" he asked, placing his hands on her shoulders as soon as the children were out of sight.

She shook her head, her face still flushed with anger. "He's just so irresponsible!"

"You seemed fine with it this morning," he said cautiously. "What changed?"

She laughed once without mirth. "I remembered that your father died without a wand."

That threw him for a moment, but then he wrapped her in his arms. She rested her head on his chest and let out a deep sigh.

"Things are different now," he said gently. "I saved everyone, remember?"

She looked up at him with a small smile. "Vaguely."

He grinned. "You want me to talk to him?"

"Please. But let's finish unpacking first."

He nodded and turned to face the stacks of boxes around them. Things went much smoother now that he had his wand; they both sent bric-a-brac flying across the room with the flick of a wrist, which ended up becoming the type of game that really should have required some serious headgear to avoid a trip to Saint Mungo's.

They finished in the lounge with minimal casualties and much lighter spirits.

"I'm going to go check on Albus," Ginny said, still breathless from laughter.

"Okay. I'll pop in on Lily for a bit and then go talk to James."

She gazed adoringly at him for a moment.

"What?"

"Nothing," she said, dancing forward to plant a kiss on his lips. "I'm going upstairs."

He watched her bound up the steps with a tender expression before grabbing the craft knife off of the recently placed coffee table and following her example.

Lily's bedroom door swung open when he knocked.

"Lil?" Harry called, "Everything okay?"

Lily was sitting in the middle of a pile of boxes reading a book. He glanced around at the bare room and the sealed boxes stacked all over the floor. She looked up at him guiltily.

"What's that you're reading?" Harry asked, moving to sit on a box beside her.

He knew the answer before she replied; anyone who'd been friends with Hermione for as long as he had would know that text anywhere.

"Hogwarts: A History," she replied, looking a little anxious. "I haven't started unpacking yet."

He laughed. "Yeah, I can see that. You want some help?"

Her face brightened at his offer and she nodded vigorously. "Yes, please."

Harry pulled out his wand and turned to the first box.

"Do you want the mermaid above your bed or over by the unicorn on the windowsill?" he asked a few minutes later.

"By the window," she replied absently. "I don't like it when she watches me sleep."

He obediently set the picture on the sill, ignoring the mermaid in the frame playing at biting his fingers.

"Dad?" Lily said tentatively.

He turned around to see her looking shyly at the ground.

"Yeah?" he prompted.

It took her almost a full minute "What's it like at Hogwarts?"

Of course he'd known that this question was coming. He'd had the same conversation with each of the boys before they started school, and Lily only had a few months left before she'd be climbing aboard the Hogwarts express. Each of them had handled the nervous excitement differently; apparently Lily was taking the Hermione Granger route. He smiled down at his not-so-little girl. She had her mother's eyes.

"You're going to love it," he replied simply.

She looked down at the pink teddy bear she was twisting in her hands. "But that's not really an answer," she mumbled.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you say that I'll love it, but that doesn't mean it's any good." She stroked her fingers absentmindedly through the grubby pink fur and Harry waited for her to explain.

"I mean," she continued, meeting his eyes with a concerned furrow between her tiny red eyebrows. "I love James because he's my brother. But _he's_ hardly ever good."

He had to laugh at her reasoning. "I agree with you there."

She gently placed the teddy bear back in the box and fished out a book, but made no move to put it on the shelf. Harry walked over to her and crouched down, taking the book from her and setting it aside.

"I know you're scared to leave," he said gently. "I was scared too, when I went."

Her brown eyes went wide. "You were scared?".

"Of course," he smiled. "But I can't tell you what it's like there, because it's much more fun when you find out for yourself."

She looked unsure, but smiled nonetheless. "Thanks, Dad."

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Author's Note

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 **Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! If you did, or didn't and want to tell me why, please leave a review. Also, feel free to favourite and/or follow if you think I deserve it.  
**

 **You know when you get tired of always writing in the same old fandom? Yeah. Shout out to Hes-beauty-hes-jason-grace for poking me with a cattle prod and making me post this. Yay for fanfiction writing siblings!**

 **All credit for these characters and this universe goes to J.K Rowling.**


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